CHAPTER 1
The setting of jean genet’s play the balcony is a brothel that is catering to refine sensibilities and tastes that are peculiar. Men from all walks of life don the garb of the fantasies they have and act them out here. The costumed diversions take place while a revolution rages outside which has isolated the brothel from the rest of the rebel city. Genet presents his caustic view towards man and society in a stunning series of climatic scenes and macabre. This book balcony is a work of dramatic genius. Genet is posing a question for us “what is the nature of virtue and its relationship regarding power ? In this play he chooses a setting of a…show more content… At last he says,” They have seen the truth”. The balcony can also be said to be the extension of the real social phenomenon of the world. Genet has directly dealt with the fundamental structures of the modern society. So by the setting of the brothel and the actions of the play, it has become a vehicle for criticizing social reality. The play also has much common features with the ‘theatre of cruelty’ concepts with the respect to the portrayal of the violent sexuality. The prostitutes in the play are trapped in the performance of life and the clients are sexually and emotionally satisfied with this. Genet has observed society and social relations determined by the power role.
However, ‘the maids’ is also about sex, power and violence. This brooding play depicts two sisters servants in an upper class Parisian home, who mightly engage in secret ceremony of revenge while their mistress is away. The maids was Genet’s